Climate Change Presents Opportunities to Renew Development Strategies - ADB President

SINGAPORE - As climate change threatens future growth, this threat also presents an opportunity for East Asian countries to renew development strategies for making their economies energy efficient, diversifying their energy portfolio and planning to lessen the impacts of natural disasters, Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Haruhiko Kuroda said today.

“Climate challenge is daunting. However, it is also an opportunity for our region to adapt to new patterns of development. Through partnership, we can promote policies and technologies that advance energy efficiency, boost renewable energy, and adapt to make the region’s future brighter, and more resilient,” Mr. Kuroda said in his speech during the East Asia Summit.

Mr. Kuroda stressed the need for regional cooperation, suggesting some ideas for regional leaders to consider, including new incentive mechanisms specifically focused on energy security and jointly developing high energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies.

The ADB President called on regional leaders to look to the private sector for assistance to finance mitigation and adaptation measures. “Concessional funding must be central, but the public sector alone cannot fill the gap. Carbon pricing and other market mechanisms would induce the private sector to invest in these critical areas.”

Mr. Kuroda told regional leaders it is essential to look for ways to make fossil-fuel use as efficient and as clean as possible while also pursuing low-carbon alternatives.

“Energy-efficient economies using diverse and indigenous energy supply are remarkably resilient to external shocks. This strengthens the region’s competitiveness and sustains high levels of growth,” he said. Renewable energy sources involving biomass, wind, geothermal, hydropower and solar heating can benefit the environment and provide energy security.

Mr. Kuroda said water is another issue closely tied to climate change, but with concerns of its own. “Without water, no community or nation can flourish,” he said. If greenhouse gas emissions accelerate at their current pace, hundreds of millions of people in Asia and the Pacific will experience fresh water shortages by the middle of this century. Even under the best case scenario, adaptation measures will still cost developing countries around the world $10 billion annually for infrastructure adjustments alone.

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